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About The Accidental Tourist

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world–and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.

Praise for The Accidental Tourist

“Poignant . . . funny . . . The Accidental Tourist is one of her best. . . . [Tyler] has never been stronger.”—The New York Times

“Bittersweet . . . evocative . . . It’s easy to forget this is the warm lull of fiction; you half-expect to run into her characters at the dry cleaners. . . . Tyler [is] a writer of great compassion.”—TheBoston Globe

“Tyler has given us an endlessly diverting book whose strength gathers gradually to become a genuinely thrilling one.”—Los Angeles Times

About The Accidental Tourist

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world–and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.

Praise for The Accidental Tourist

“Poignant . . . funny . . . The Accidental Tourist is one of her best. . . . [Tyler] has never been stronger.”—The New York Times

“Bittersweet . . . evocative . . . It’s easy to forget this is the warm lull of fiction; you half-expect to run into her characters at the dry cleaners. . . . Tyler [is] a writer of great compassion.”—TheBoston Globe

“Tyler has given us an endlessly diverting book whose strength gathers gradually to become a genuinely thrilling one.”—Los Angeles Times

Praise

“Poignant . . . funny . . . The Accidental Tourist is one of her best. . . . [Tyler] has never been stronger.”—The New York Times

“Bittersweet . . . evocative . . . It’s easy to forget this is the warm lull of fiction; you half-expect to run into her characters at the dry cleaners. . . . Tyler [is] a writer of great compassion.”—TheBoston Globe

“Tyler has given us an endlessly diverting book whose strength gathers gradually to become a genuinely thrilling one.”—Los Angeles Times

About Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of over twenty novels; her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American… More about Anne Tyler

About Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of over twenty novels; her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American… More about Anne Tyler

Author Q&A

A Conversation with Anne Tyler

Q: Can Macon be described as an accidental tourist in his own life?Can we all?

AT: Certainly Macon can, but I wouldn’t say that accidental tourism isa universal condition. Some people seem to have very meticulous itinerariesfor their lives.

Q: Ethan’s tragic death looms over all of the characters in this novel.Why are so many characters angry, at–or at least disapproving of–Macon for his manner of grieving?

AT: Because to someone not very perceptive, Macon’s manner of grievingdoesn’t really look like grief.

Q: Is it simply inertia that prevents Macon from dealing with Edward’smisbehavior for so long? Why does he find the process of trainingEdward to be so difficult and painful?

AT: While I was writing this book, I wondered the same thing. I askedmyself, Why do I seem to be going on and on about this ridiculousdog, who has nothing to do with the main plot? Then when Murielasked Macon, "Do you want a dog who’s angry all the time?" (orwords to that effect), I thought, Oh! Of course! That’s exactly what hewants! This dog is angry for him!

Q: Would you agree that Edward’s reactions to Muriel mirror Macon’sto some degree?

AT: Oh, I think Edward is way ahead of Macon in his reactions.

Q: What does Singleton Street represent for Macon?

AT: Otherness. The opposite of his own narrow self.

Q: Macon, like many characters in this novel, feels trapped by otherpeople’s perceptions of him. Does Muriel see Macon as he truly is, oras someone he wants to be?

AT: Neither, really. She sees the person she herself wants him to be; butsince she’s an accepting and non-judgmental type, who he really isturns out to be all right with her.

Q: Macon’s friends and family are mostly disapproving of "thatMuriel person." Is it simply a matter of class prejudice?

AT: Class for the most part; but also personality style. To a family soundemonstrative, Muriel would be a bit daunting.

Q: If not for Muriel’s persistence, would Macon have made a differentchoice?

AT: Yes, certainly. Muriel is a pretty powerful force.

Q: In The Accidental Tourist, you write of Macon: "He began to thinkthat who you are when you’re with somebody may matter more thanwhether you love her." Ultimately, does Macon love Muriel?

AT: I think he really does.

Q: Macon remembers finding a magazine quiz in which Sarahanswered that she loved her spouse more than he loved her. How accuratewas her answer? Was Sarah correct in writing that she lovedMacon more than he loved her?

AT: Her answer reflected her limited understanding of Macon, Ibelieve, more than the true situation.

Q: Is Macon being honest when he tells Sarah that Muriel’s young sondid not draw him to Muriel?

AT: I did mean that to be his honest answer. If anything, her son was anegative quality–at least in the beginning.

Q: This novel explores the vexed nature of romantic relationships. Dothe couples that have formed over the course of this novel stand achance?

AT: Yes, of course they do. These are flawed relationships–as allare–and they require compromise–as all do. But at least one memberof each couple has found a way to make those compromises.

Q: The Learys are at once remarkable comic figures and deeply humancharacters. How difficult is it to achieve this delicate balance and neitherveer into parody nor a humorless character study?

AT: In early drafts, when I didn’t know the Learys all that well, I didveer over one or the other edge from time to time. But the mostrewarding experience in writing a novel is the gradually deepeningunderstanding of its characters; and once I knew the Learys better, thebalance came naturally.

Q: Will Rose and Julian’s relationship survive the transplant to theLeary homestead?

AT: Yes, Julian will become a funny sort of quasi-Leary, purely out oflove for Rose, and a helpful liaison to the outside world.

Q: Is there any hope for Porter or Charles?

AT: Well, not much hope they’ll truly change, of course. But they seemcontented as they are.

Q: Do you have the narrative fairly well mapped out before you beginwriting a novel, or do you find yourself taking detours? For instance,did you know all along how this novel would end?

AT: I map my books out in a very cursory way–say, about a page foreach novel–and I always think I know how they’ll end, but I’malmost always wrong. In the case of The Accidental Tourist, I actuallybegan a chapter in which Macon stayed with Sarah. But it didn’twork; something in the characters themselves persuaded me the endingwould have to be different.

Q: Do your characters ever surprise you?

AT: All the time.

Q: What do you most enjoy about your life as writer? And least?

AT: The best part about being a writer is the experience of learning,gradually, what it is like to be a person completely different from me.The hard part is that for years on end, I am working in a vacuum. Isthis a story anyone will believe? Anyone will care about? I won’t knowthat until I’m finished.

Q: If you could invite any writer, living or dead, to attend a readinggroup meeting to discuss their work, who would it be? What wouldyou most like to learn from her or him?

A: I would rather read the writer, not hear him or her talk. I know thatfrom being a writer myself: what I have to say, I have already saidthrough my stories.

Q: What are you reading right now?

AT: Lately, I have fallen in love with Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. It’s amesmerizing novel, moving, amusing, and enlightening. And I amtelling everyone to watch for Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake, a soon-to-be-published novel about a family of orphans in the northernmostreaches of Canada.